Uncategorized

Jai Gurudeva!

 Jai to the Kailasa Parampara!

Aum Namah Sivaya! 

Today, we joyfully celebrated Gurudeva’s Chitra Pada Puja at Kadavul Temple. This occasion was particularly special, as it marked Sadhaka Shankaranatha’s very first pada puja as the main priest. With deep devotion and steady focus, Sadhaka performed the puja beautifully, invoking a powerful spiritual presence. Through his heartfelt chanting and sacred abhishekam, the atmosphere was uplifted, drawing forth the inner divinity from each of us who were present.

Below is a video of the final ārati, shared so you too may receive the same blessings and spiritual upliftment that we experienced today.

In Other News: Now on Instagram

All this while we were posting the shorter version of Path to Siva chapter content here in TAKA but now it will be available in Instagram and will be posting it on every Monday, Wednesday and Friday for you to enjoy the content. We have already posted the first chapter, and in subsequent days we will be posting the rest of the chapters.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Kauai's Hindu Monastery (@kauaishindumonastery)

A Golden Murti for Concord Temple

The crate arrives and is greeted

Priests carefully open and remove the packing

Revealing the beautiful sculpture

It is garlanded and moved to the homa area

A formal homa is conducted to honor the temple’s founder and visionary. Jai Gurudeva!

For many years a small shrine in the basement of the Concord Siva Muruga Temple held Gurudeva’s photo, honoring the founder. Now that the temple has been completely rebuilt, a more formal space has been designed for this, and devotees worked to have a sculptor in India make a proper bronze murti, which was then gold plated.

Everyone rushed to meet the deadline. The timing was not what was planned; it was better. The original schedule had the arrival scheduled to coincide with the May 9-10 kumbhabishekam, the Grand Opening. But the shipment was delayed and it arrived weeks later. This was great, because all of the intensity of 50,000 devotees, and all of the sacred chaos had settled, so when Gurudeva arrived the temple was quiet and the priests could focus solely on taking care of him. The slideshow shows the simple greeting. At a time yet unknown to us Gurudeva will be moved to his permanent place and be installed.

Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami gives his weekly upadesha in Kadavul Temple at Kauai’s Hindu Monastery in Hawaii. It is part of a series of talks elaborating on the inspired teachings of Satguru Śivaya Subramuniyaswami as found in his book Merging With Śiva.

“Devotees occasionally ask, “When you experience a thought you don’t like, should you go around the thought, or go to the center of the thought and find out why you don’t like it?” Look at thoughts as people. I see thoughts when I’m in the world of thought like a school of fish. I’m there in the ocean, sitting and looking, and a school of fish goes by, right in front of me. Well, look at thoughts as people. You are aware of other people, but you are not other people. You are just aware of other people. So, when you see someone you do not like, you don’t have to do anything about it. Let him be. It’s the same with thoughts. When a thought comes passing by that you don’t like, let it go. You don’t have to glue yourself onto it and psychoanalyze it; it doesn’t do the thought any good to be psychoanalyzed by you!“

Welding rods

Nearby, the skidsteer is having some maintenance

This nifty broom automatically gathers debris into a dustbin as you push it

Nearby grass mower maintenance. The mower blade decks frequently need repairs.

The new welding station inside the Siddhidata Kulam’s building is now complete, sequestered by walls on three sides due to the flying sparks and smoke that occurs during welding. The equipment is all inside and the electrical work done.

A couple weeks ago we happened to be in the right place at the right time to capture a rainbow over Iraivan Temple–

The Path to Siva workshop

Doing vasana daha tantra

Visit with the Valluvan family

endless palm fields

Recent travel days for our monks in Malaysia saw a variety of events. The team took an hour’s drive from Petaling Jaya to Seremban, where the second “Path to Siva” seminar was held at the Sri Maha Raja Rajeswarar Shivan Kovil. About 50 to 60 students joined for the two-hour seminar. Swami’s talk was very focused, and even though the group was initially quite shy, they opened up after the Vasana Daha Tantra, asking thoughtful questions. A delicious meal was served, followed by a quick tour of the temple. The meditation hall had a beautiful vibration and a Siva lingam in the center. After thanking the organizers, our monks returned to their hotel in Petaling Jaya.

Inspired by the Seremban workshop, the teachers who attended decided to begin monthly Path to Siva sessions for a group of students who had participated. They plan to study the teachings in more depth. Several students shared how the workshop had changed their lives.

The most recent day was a travel day from PJ to Manjung, a drive of roughly three hours. The landscape was filled with endless oil palm estates—a striking sight. The group visited Bri. Santha Devi’s home, met with members, and enjoyed a delicious lunch. After a good rest, they had an early dinner and turned in for the night. More uplifting days await. Aum

Jai Ganesha!

We have successfully completed three chapters and now we have moved to Path to Siva Chapter Four. Hope you all are enjoying this small series and a different initiative from us to you. Below is the video for you to enjoy it. Aum

CLICK TO PLAY!

Here a promo for our Spiritual Workout app done by one of our monks, Sannyasin Tillainathaswami and the promo video was made by Sannyasin Mayilnathaswami. You can download the app through App Store (for iOS) and PlayStore (for Android). You can also visit by clicking this link https://www.himalayanacademy.com/our-apps/ to the webpage of the application.